"Maybe, we should have (drafted Ryan instead)," Parcells, the Dolphins' former executive vice president of football operations, told The Miami Herald on Tuesday.

Here's a harsh reality of the NFL draft: Some teams wish they could just go back in time for a second chance. This week, former personnel executives Pat Kirwan and Michael Lombardi rewrite the drafts from 2004 to 2008.

For that reason and others, Parcells told ESPN.com on Wednesday that Long indeed was the right choice.

"You always wonder if you should've taken a quarterback," Parcells said. "You always wonder about that. But I don't regret taking Jake Long. The guy has been in the Pro Bowl every season he's played. What else you want?"

Ryan, who went No. 3 to the Atlanta Falcons in the 2008 draft, is 33-13 as a starter -- the most games won by any of the quarterbacks drafted in the last five years -- but he owns a 0-2 record in the playoffs.

Parcells also told the Herald that the decision to take quarterback Pat White in the second round of the 2009 draft "violated our principles."

"He just wasn't a prototypical quarterback pick," Parcells said. "He was a great college player, and we let that color our judgment."

Parcells attributed to decision to draft White to a "fever in the personnel department" and the quarterback's success with the Wildcat package and the spread offense.

White, a dual-threat star at the University of West Virginia, played in 13 games with the Dolphins, but he was 0-of-5 passing and ran for just 81 yards on 21 carries. Miami released White before the 2010 season,and he then pursued a professional baseball career, but he told the Kansas City Royals in March that he was retiring.